The Gospel in Real Life

I am blogging through the definitions of love that are given to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In my first blog on this subject, I talked briefly about how love is patient. The second characteristic of love that Paul gives us in that chapter is that love is kind. The descriptions of love in this chapter are descriptions of God’s love for us as believers and consequently, the same kind of love that we as Christians should be expressing toward one another. We cannot love God without loving others. That doesn’t work:

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4: 19-21)

I can say that I love God all day long, but the real proof that I love him is nested in my actions and speech toward and with others. I cannot love God and not love people. I don’t know about you, but that can be a struggle for me as I try to live out the gospel in real life. It can be a struggle because 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love is patient and love is kind. That means that in those moments when I am impatient with, or unkind to others, I do not love them. Often, loving others the way God would have us love them – with patience and kindness – can be difficult to do, especially when those we’re trying to love are abrasive toward us or have a critical spirit. But in those moments of struggle or failure, I am reminded of the gospel. God’s love for me is constant and unchanging regardless of how Read more…

I often struggle with being patient. I can grow impatient when circumstances or events in my life don’t go as planned or they seem to drag on unchanged forever. Oh, the drudgery of waiting. Waiting for something can try my patience. But I don’t think I’m alone. I think we’re all wired that way, even though for some of us, the fuse might be shorter and our struggle with being patient surfaces earlier. After 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, Israel grew impatient even though they were on the cusp of entering the Promised Land.

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (Numbers 21:4-5)

The people became impatient along the way. That sometimes describes me. I become impatient along the way. I’ve also noticed that when I grow impatient with my circumstances that I do just what Israel did. I complain and grow irritable and anxious. Instead of being thankful in every circumstance (1 Thessalonians 5:18), I can easily find myself “loathing this worthless food” and questioning why things are the way they are. My impatience with my circumstances amounts to me shaking my fist at God and complaining about Read more…